Femininity And The Physically Active Woman

The fitness boom of the last two decades has led to many people incorporating exercise into their lifestyles through activities such as jogging and aerobics. However, whilst many physical and psychological health benefits have been documented, far too few people actually take part in enough exercise to glean significant improvements, and this is much more a problem for women than men. Femininity and the Physically Active Woman explores one reason many women offer for their lack of involvement in sport and exercise - that they are not the 'sporty' type. Precilla Y.L. Choi argues that the 'sporty' type is masculine, and to determine how this notion might affect women's self-perceptions, she critically examines the experiences of women athletes, bodybuilders, recreational exercisers and girls' physical education. What emerges is the importance of visible differences between women and men, in terms of muscularity, strength and agility in order to maintain the gender order. Thus, if a girl or woman wishes to play the masculine game of sport she must do so in conformity with a number of patriarchal rules which ensure she is first and foremost recognised as a heterosexual feminine being. Contributing to a psychology of the physically active woman by examining women's experiences from critical feminist and gendered perspectives, Femininity and the Physically Active Woman will be of great interest to students, researchers, practitioners and teachers from a range of disciplines. Precilla Y.L. Choi is the British Association for the Advancement of Science's Joseph Lister Lecturer for 2000. She has co-edited, with Paula Nicolson, Female Sexuality (Prentice Hall).

Exercise for women is a heavily-laden social and embodied experience. While exercise promotion has become an increasingly visible part of health campaigns, obesity among women is rising, and studies indicate that women are generally less physically active than men. Women’s (lack of) exercise, therefore, has become a public concern, and physiological and psychological research has attempted to develop more effective exercise programs aimed at women. Yet women have a complex relationship with embodiment and physical activity that is difficult for quantitative scientific approaches to explore. This book addresses this neglect by providing a much-needed feminist, qualitative social analysis of women and exercise. The contributors, drawn from across Europe and North America, investigate the ways women experience exercise within the context of the global fitness industry. All the authors take a specifically feminist perspective in their analysis of the fit, feminine body, exploring media images and the global branding of fitness products, the relationship between exercise and fat, the construction of physical activity within health discourse, and the lived experience of the exercising body. The collection explores the diversity of women’s experiences of exercise in relation to age, ethnicity and body size. The book is essential for anyone interested in health promotion, sport and exercise or the social and cultural study of gender and embodiment.

The Melpomene Institute for Women's Health Research, the country's only research institute on health-related issues affecting physically active women, offers solid advice on exercise and its specific effects and benefits. Includes in-depth guidelines for every sport, clear strategies for choosing the best sports, and more. Line drawings, charts, and graphs.

This book covers a wide range of issues and controversies within the world of sports—including drug use, economics, ethics, ethnicity, gender, globalization, politics, race, sexuality, and technology—from both a U.S. and global perspective. World Sports: A Reference Handbook covers a wide variety of sports-related controversies, including ethical, political, technological, business, and social issues related to the phenomenon of sports. Many of the larger topics are covered from multiple angles, often providing both a global and American perspective. The work provides unique insights into the commonly addressed subject of sports, supplying information that most readers will find unfamiliar and thought-provoking. Addressing forms of sports as diverse as American football, skateboarding, NASCAR auto racing, ultrarunning, and the disciplines of the Olympic Games, the title's topics are discussed in depth to illuminate the sport's specific issues and are backed with information from relevant sports organizations, biographies of important people, chronologies, and charts and graphs. The information within this handbook is based upon the latest academic research but presented in very accessible language, making it appropriate for high school and undergraduate students as well as general readers.

Opening with an account of feminist theoretical perspectives and applying this work to girls' physical education, this text traces the foundations and traditions of girls' PE, identifying ideologies of physical ability/capacity, motherhood/domesticity, and sexuality that inform PE today.

The Female Tradition in Physical Education re-examines a key question in the history of modern education: why did the remarkably successful leaders of female physical education, who pioneered the development of the subject in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, lose control in the years following the Second World War? Despite the later resurgence of second wave feminism they never regained a voice, with the result that male leadership was able to shift the curriculum in ways that neglected the needs and interests of girls and young women. Drawing on new sources and a range of historiographical approaches, and touching on related fields such as therapeutic exercise and dance, the book examines the development of physical education for girls in a number of countries to offer an alternative explanation to the dominant narrative of the ‘demise’ of the female tradition. Providing an important contextualization for the state of contemporary female physical education, this is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the development of sport and physical education, women’s and gender history, and physical culture more generally.

Diverse sex, gender, and sexual identities historically have been pushed to the margins in sport. While there is more visibility and inclusion for LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer) people in sport today than in the past, there still exists bigotry and marginalization. In this book, Vikki Krane and a team of leading sport scholars critically assess what we know about sex, gender, and sexuality in sport; expose areas in need of further inquiry; and offer new avenues for theory, research, and practice. Drawing on cultural studies perspectives, and with social justice at the heart of every chapter, the book discusses theory, policy, practice, and the experiences of LGBTIQ people in sport. Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Sport is an important read for undergraduate and postgraduate students in any class with content on LGBTIQ people in sport, but particularly for those studying sport and gender, sexuality and sport, LGBT studies, psychology of gender, contemporary issues in sport, sociology of gender, and sport and higher education. It is also a vital resource for scholars who conduct research in the area of LGBTIQ people in sport.